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Man Gets 10 Years In Police Chase, Shooting

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HASTINGS, Minn. (WCCO) — A 28-year-old man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday in Dakota County District Court in connection with a police chase that led to a shooting in December 2009.

Roman Tokarev pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree assault, fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle and felon in possession of a firearm.

The district court judge issued an aggravated durational departure from a presumptive sentence of 57 months based on the fact that it was Tokarev’s third violent offense.

According to a criminal complaint, Tokarev stole a truck on Dec. 2, 2009, and said he would text the owner of the driver about the location of the truck later in the day. Police also recovered a letter that was an apparent suicide note. It said “I’m going all the way once they pull me over. I’m going to shoot them until I run out of bullets.”

A Hastings police officer saw the stolen truck that day and pulled Tokarev over. He drove the stolen vehicle back and forth so it moved both the police car and the truck. He went on to strike the officer with the truck as he was standing by the driver’s side door, causing the officer to fall to the ground.

Tokarev appeared to raise a firearm, and the officer fired at Tokarev several times as he was trying to pull away. Tokarev went through several residential neighborhoods and was eventually stopped by police. Tokarev raised a firearm towards officers, and they proceeded to shoot him.

Tokarev had previously second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and first-degree aggravated robbery.